This invention relates to a terminal station for use in a radio communication network, such as a cordless telephone system, including a plurality of base stations which have service areas partially overlapping on one another.
A conventional cordless telephone system comprises a plurality of base stations and a plurality of terminal stations. The base stations have service areas partially overlapping on one another. The terminal stations are placed in the service areas. Different radio channels are preassigned to the base stations for communication with the terminal stations. Therefore, the base stations are communicable with the terminal stations through preassigned ones of the radio channels.
Generally, the conventional cordless telephone system is designed so that the base stations are preassigned with a predetermined number of the radio channels for a greater number of the terminal stations. For example, one radio channel is assigned to each base station. The greater number may be equal to two. In the conventional cordless telephone, the radio channel becomes busy for a predetermined one of the base stations when communication is carried out by one of terminal stations that is preassigned to the base station under consideration. In this event, it is impossible, even if the radio channel of another base station is idle, that another terminal station communicates through the radio channel of the other base station. As a result, the conventional cordless telephone system is disadvantageous in that the radio channels are not effectively used by the terminal stations.